Monthly Archives: March 2019

Fenwick Broyard. Shortly after moving to Athens, I started volunteering at Community Connection of Northeast Georgia. Fenwick suggested I check out BFK. He thought they had a position open. I’m not sure if they did but I researched the organization, fell in love and started volunteering in the warehouse and eventually at the book sale. This lead to being on the Development Committee and subsequent ad-hoc committees which led to the Board of Directors!

How long have you been volunteering or serving with Books for Keeps?

Volunteering in the warehouse since November 2015. Book sale and Development Committee since 2017 and on the board since January 2018.

Why did you choose to serve on the Books for Keeps’ board?

Why would I not?! It’s such an amazing organization! Reading and education were always important growing up. Reading opens up windows of opportunities and without it your options are limited. I have worked in the human services profession and provided direct service to individuals who cannot read or struggle with reading. I have seen the effects of what happens when we do not take the time to teach children to read. It has lasting effects.

Have you had an inspiring/memorable interaction with a student since working with Books for Keeps? (This can be a direct interaction or something you observed.) If so, tell us about it.

At last years book distribution, a student picked out twelve of the heaviest books. It was so heavy it trailed behind her. The bag had to weigh more than the student. In general, just seeing the smiles on kids faces. They light up like a Christmas tree! It’s the best [...]

2019 Book Distribution sign-ups are officially going live! In a shift from previous years, we will be adding the shifts as they sign-ups are finished so that you can go ahead and sign up to volunteer at our earliest schools. With your help, we’ll once more be giving away nearly 95,000 books to children at 18 schools in Athens, Atlanta, Warrenton, and Elberton. This is your chance to experience the joy of helping students in your community pick out 12 free books for summer – for keeps! School-specific volunteer shifts will be coming soon, but official distribution dates have been finalized!

If you are part of a group (8 to 15 people) that would like to adopt and work an entire shift at a particular school, let us know now so that we can coordinate with you to reserve a shift. Email Program Manager
Justin Bray at justin@booksforkeeps.org

It’s our favorite way to kick off the spring- with Book Drive Month. Every spring, we kick up our community outreach and prepare for our annual book sale by invited community partners and new friends to host a book drive to benefit Books for Keeps. Book drives are our favorite way to share our passion with brand new community members!

This spring, we have another amazing group of book drive participants:

In addition to these 18 book drives happening in March, our friends at Cotton Patch Quilters will be hosting a drive this summer in conjunction with First Presbyterian Church of Athens. This is an annual drive hosted by CPQ that last year gathered CARLOADS of books!!

We are thrilled to have such an incredible level of book drive participation in Athens and surrounding communities. And best of all, MANY of these businesses and organizations are first-time participants. That is a lot of new faces that will be learning about our program through these partners, and we are more grateful for that than we can say!

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PRIVACY and TERMS OF USEBooks for Keeps is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit based in Athens, Georgia, serving schools in Athens, Atlanta, and beyond.Contact us via post at P.O. Box 49761, Athens, GA 30604, by phone at (706) 410-1912, or via email at info@booksforkeeps.org